Tide getting a 'throwback player' in Nick Jacobs, high school coach says

TUSCALOOSA -- A late-blooming big man from Atlanta is the latest and perhaps biggest addition to the Alabama basketball team's 2011 signing class.

Nick Jacobs, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound power forward/center from Atlanta, announced his commitment to the Crimson Tide Tuesday. The four-star prospect is rated the No. 85 player in the nation overall and the No. 10 center by Rivals.com.

"He has a lot of room for improvement," said Michael Reddick, Jacobs' coach at South Atlanta High School. "From where he came from four years ago to where he is right now is amazing."

Jacobs, who picked Alabama over Clemson, Georgia and Florida, averaged 22 points and 12 rebounds per game last season as he took over for departed star Derrick Favors. The 6-10 Favors was the Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year last season at Georgia Tech, then was selected by the New Jersey Nets with the third pick of the NBA draft.

"Derrick, of course, was a more athletic player and had been playing at a high level for a much longer time," Reddick said. "Nick is a much stronger player. He's still getting parts of the game down."

So what was Jacobs like four years ago?

"Coming out of middle school, I don't like to talk bad about people, but he had a long ways to go," Reddick said. "Let's put it this way: This is only his fifth year of playing basketball, so you can imagine where he was three or four years ago. ... Coordination hadn't caught up with him yet."

Reddick started to see potential in Jacobs midway through his freshman season.

"I gave him a couple of moves to learn. He got those moves down and realized that most people couldn't stop him," Reddick said. "He didn't have pressure on him because when he came in he was playing next to Derrick Favors and Nick Watkins and all these other guys who were just ballplayers.

"He started to show that, wow, this kid's going to be OK."

Jacobs' strength is his ability to score in the low post, Reddick said.

"He needs the most improvement in needing to step out and shoot that 12-foot jump shot," Reddick said. "He's in a gym by himself shooting, he can make it. But he's not comfortable enough to take those shots in a game yet.

"He's more of a throwback player, where he can play with his back to the bucket. You don't find that much now. Most kids when they're his size, they want to face up and be able to shoot threes and all this other kind of stuff."

Jacobs will join two shooting guards from Alabama high schools and a center from an Illinois junior college as players who will sign next month with Alabama.

The shooting guards are 6-6 Levi Randolph of Bob Jones High School in Madison and 6-5 Rodney Cooper of Russell County High School in Phenix City.

The center, 7-foot, 270-pound Moussa Gueye of Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill., is a native of Senegal.